Pagina's

Tuesday, February 11, 2014

Yannick's Forrester mod.

A few weeks ago, a guy called Yannick, contacted me about a modification he wanted to do with his 111mm Forester and after some mails we agreed that I would post his report on the Blog. Here's the result...

Hi ! I wanted to tell you a few things about the customization I have done on my Forester.

In a few words, the Forester is like the new 2008 Swiss Army Knife, with a corkscrew instead of the cross screwdriver, and red bi-material scales.

I wanted to test the “one hand” blade. After a few weeks of daily use, I find it wonderful and I can’t do without, now.

But the serrated blade is still a problem. It cuts very well, but it is difficult to make a straight cut, and fine work is impossible.

So I found a Sentinel with a non-serrated blade and did the exchange.

I also wanted to change the can-opener which I find useless, for a small blade that I want to keep very sharp.

Here are a few notes that I took during the disassembly:the2 main rivets are Ø3.0mm. the 2 rivets on the rear are Ø2.5mm.Here is a drawing of the rivet head (that we sometimes call « rosace » in french):

So I wanted to try something : instead of making new identical rivets, why not making screws with the head the same shape as the rivet heads?

That’s what I did. I machined them on my toolmaker’s lathe, and so the nuts, with the same head profile. My plan is to secure the thread with Loctite threadlocking glue. The glue can be desactivated by heating at 120°C (for exemple with a small blaze) If I want to disassemble the knife again.

This solution enables me to fine tune the rivets’ thightening and go backward if needed.

OK, the change of the can opener for a small blade is not obvious:

The root of the blades have the same profile. Starting well. But the thickness is 0.8mm less. A small Thickness shim should do the trick!

But the samll blade from a 91mm Victorinx SAK is done to cross the long blade on the left. And here, on the left there is the screwdriver. So I have to cheat to make it go on the right. Otherwise the blade’s tip is touching the screwdriver.

After taking the dimensions, I calculated that I needed 2 shims with 2° tilt. assembly test: the blade is over-tilted and is touching the stainless steel liner.try again ! new shims with 1.5° tilt (thank you my milling machine with tilting table) Perfect! The blade is touching neither the screwdriver nor the liner.

Ho ! I forgot to say: rivet for a 91 SAK = Ø2.5mm rivet from my 111 SAK = Ø3mm So I had to drill the small blade to Ø3. A high quality HSS drill-bit failed. I needed to use a tungsten carbid bit.

Time has come to do the assembly with my specially developped assembly tools : a normal screwdriver ! and for the nuts I found a bit that fitted perfectly after grinding it to the thickness. On the following picture we can see the 2 thickness shims on each side of the small blade, and it’s alignment along the central liner, with no contact.

after that I fine-tune the tightening of each “rivet”, then secure them with the threadlocking glue, then put back the scales. I use a black scale for the corckscrew side in order to have a slot for the tooth-pick (no slots on the bi-material grip scales!)and her it is! My wished ideal swiss army knife!concerning the Sentinel, I assembled it with the serrated blade and the rivets from the Forester.

Awesome looking Victorinox Swiss army knife perfect for everyday carry to outdoors where they can be used for multiple applications. Found some of these at http://www.knifeindia.com/brands/victorinox.html

Welcome

**PRESENTATION**

Hi, I'm Jeroen, born in Tongeren, the oldest city of Belgium on 19 februari 1981. My main hobby is collecting knives, and lately that changed to almost only Victorinox... After traveling to the SAK's birthplace, my hunger for more grew and I started this blog to answer your questions and mainly learn from other collectors like you... I hope you like the blog and if you do,please be so kind to leave a message in the guestbook after your visit.

The history in a nutshell...

The company was founded in 1884. Since 1891, the company has delivered knives to the Swiss army. Their famous emblem—a cross in a shield—has been used by Victorinox since 1909. That year, the mother of founder Karl Elsener died and he named the company "Victoria" in her honour. In 1921, with the introduction of "inox" into their products, the brand and name of the company became the present "Victorinox" ("Victoria"+"Inox").

Additionally, Victorinox claims never to have had to fire or make redundant an employee for economic reasons. To do this they set aside profits during boom periods to supplement recessionary periods, as well as temporarily contracting employees to other companies as outsourced labour during recessions.

In 2006 the company had a workforce of 900 employees and produced about 34,000 Swiss Army knives, 38,000 multi-tools, and 30,000 household, kitchen, and knives per workday. Approximately 90 percent of its production is exported, to more than 100 countries.